Saturday, February 18, 2012

The Wulff Ending

Almost by a scripted event....Germany's President Wulff finally said enough, and resigned.  When the prosecutors came out this week and talked how they wanted a way for charges to be brought against him (the law forbids charges while he sits as President).....you could sense the frustration on this guy.

What happens now?  The leading party in the Bundestag has the responsibility of looking for and finding a candidate (with a majority of the Bundestag accepting the guy in a vote).  Chancellor Merkel is probably going to have a short list of five people....sit down with the SPD (the leading opposition party), and ask if any of the five are an issue with their leadership.  This meeting isn't required, but she'd like to have 'nod' that they won't immediately go against the incoming character.

Who gets picked?  Generally, it's an individual who has been generally acceptable to everyone.  Whenever someone is selected for the job....the majority of Germans probably can't readily identify the guy because he hasn't been in the top ten party folks that continually appear on TV.  The individual is usually a smooth talker and comes off very polished in news interviews.

The real story now?  Well.....when all the smoke clears on Wulff and his legal matters.....I would imagine that not one single charge sticks.  The prosecution team will grin over this final conclusion....that they couldn't prove much of anything other than a guy continually looking for the best deal possible.  He didn't do one single favor in return for what he got on discount.  Some Germans will ask what this whole thing was about then, but the media will just suggest for folks to move along, and forget the whole matter.  Five years from now....some idiot will write a book over this, and show that the whole accusation process was bogus, and all political in nature.  And Germans will be fairly shocked by this, and then forget the whole thing entirely.

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